Flues, valleys, glass and Viking invasion
Exciting times on the archaeological building site. On the Roman building the scaffolding is down and the hypocaust flues are going in the walls. On the Saxon longhall shingles are […]
Author Archives: richardbrunningswht
Beckery uncovered!
The chapels on Beckery island have been uncovered again for the first time in 50 years. Glastonbury Abbey sources from the 12th century link the chapel to King Arthur, who […]
Shaking in the sunshine
Despite the intense heat, work has been continuing on the Saxon hall, with wattling of the gable ends and walls using hazel from woodland on Cothelstone Hill. The battens are appearing on […]
Shutter up!
Back to a bit of woodworking with shutter making for the Saxon hall this week. Hopefully they will be open most of the time in the finished building to make […]
Art week
Last week turned into an impromptu art festival, on show and tell lines, where people brought in their homework for public acclaim. Mary had a very nicely carved window shutter latch […]
Saxon hearth dance
Ancient Saxons built raised wooden hearths inside their longhouses. Legend has it that before the final layer was laid inside the frame, a special ‘hearth dance’ had to be performed […]
Tegulae and imbreces
The lovely Roman tiles are going up on the building and have already withstood several gales. Tegulae are the flat ones and imbreces are the curved ones. A clever system […]
wattle, sprocket and daub
Wattle Sprocket and Daub are of course a well know firm of solicitors, but they are also what has been going on recently at Hands on Heritage. The roof and […]
Lake of Excalibur discovered
John Leland, the 16th century expert on Arthurian legend, identified the bridge between Street and Glastonbury as the place where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was cast into a lake. Archaeological work […]
Wattle and daub
While some of the group were on stone shovelling duty, the rest experimented with wattle work on the Roman and Saxon buildings. Interesting solutions for how to wattle a triangular […]
Avalon Archaeology 'Hands on Heritage' 